The growth rate of power batteries is faster than that of automobiles. Besides BYD and CATL, who else has won?

When there are voices questioning that "capital is withdrawing and the growth of electric vehicles is slowing down", the trend of the installed capacity data of power batteries will bring greater confidence to the industry.

Let the data speak. According to the list data of the installed capacity of power batteries, we can draw several important conclusions.

First of all, the electrification process of automobiles is still accelerating.

From January to October, the cumulative sales volume of power batteries in China reached a record high of 910.3 GWh in the same period, with a year-on-year increase of up to 49.9%. This growth rate is significantly higher than that of new energy vehicle sales.

Secondly, China is indeed leading the global automotive electrification development process and driving other countries and regions to promote electrification through the export of new energy vehicles.

In contrast, from January to September, the global installed capacity of power batteries reached 811.7 GWh, a year-on-year increase of 34.7%, which is also quite fast but still lags behind the Chinese market. At the same time, the export volume of domestic power batteries has increased significantly, with a year-on-year increase of even more than 70% in October.

Obviously, the claim that "other countries don't want to cooperate with China in the new energy field" is pure nonsense.

In the ranking list of the installed capacity of power batteries of various suppliers, CATL and BYD Fudi still firmly hold the top two positions, leading by a large margin with shares of more than 40% and 20% respectively. However, companies such as CALB are also trying to get a share of the market.

Judging from the current situation, despite the existence of voices such as "new energy vehicles are the product of policies" and "it's wise for overseas markets not to develop new energy", the upward momentum of new energy vehicles and power batteries will still continue for a long time.

The growth rate of power batteries > that of new energy vehicles

It is said that the rapid growth of new energy vehicles has become the greatest hope in the automotive market.

That's right. In October, when the domestic retail sales of passenger cars decreased slightly by 0.8% year-on-year to 2.242 million units, the sales of new energy vehicles increased by 7.3% year-on-year to 1.282 million units. From the cumulative data from January to October, the sales of passenger cars increased by 7.9% year-on-year to 19.25 million units, while the sales of new energy vehicles soared by 21.9% year-on-year to 10.151 million units, with a penetration rate as high as 52.7%.

However, it would be a big mistake to simply attribute the popularity of new energy vehicles to preferential policies. If most people prefer fuel-powered cars and only choose electric cars reluctantly because of policies, then at the macro level, the degree of electrification per vehicle should decline - people would choose plug-in hybrid vehicles over pure electric vehicles and small and cheap batteries over large and expensive ones.

What's the reality?

According to the statistical data of the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, in October, the sales volume of power batteries in China was 124.3 GWh, a month-on-month increase of 12.4% and a year-on-year increase of 56.6%; from January to October, the cumulative sales volume of power batteries in China was 910.3 GWh, a cumulative year-on-year increase of 49.9%.

If calculated according to the installed capacity, the year-on-year growth rate also exceeded 40%. In October, the domestic installed capacity of power batteries was 84.1 GWh, a month-on-month increase of 10.7% and a year-on-year increase of 42.1%; from January to October, the cumulative domestic installed capacity of power batteries was 578.0 GWh, a cumulative year-on-year increase of 42.4%.

Obviously, the growth rate of power batteries is significantly higher than that of new energy vehicle sales, still maintaining an ultra-high year-on-year increase of over 40%.

Five years ago, it could be said that "the low base of new energy vehicles and power batteries led to high growth rates". However, now that the penetration rate of new energy vehicles has exceeded 50%, they still maintain a relatively high upward momentum.

An important indicator: the average battery capacity per new energy vehicle. That is, how big the battery pack used in each vehicle is on average.

In October, the average battery capacity per new energy vehicle in China was 55.0 kWh, the same as the previous month. The average battery capacities per pure electric passenger vehicle and plug-in hybrid passenger vehicle were 57.2 kWh and 30.0 kWh respectively, with month-on-month increases of 1.8% and 2.3% respectively.

From January to October, the average battery capacity per new energy vehicle in China was 53.0 kWh. The average battery capacities per new energy passenger vehicle, truck, bus, and special vehicle were 45.4 kWh, 188.5 kWh, 192.5 kWh, and 196.1 kWh respectively.

In other words, the average battery capacity per passenger vehicle has not exceeded 50 kWh, standing at 45.4 kWh. However, when commercial vehicles are included, the average exceeds 50 kWh.

The battery capacities of both pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles are constantly increasing. Here, the broad sense of plug-in hybrid includes extended-range electric vehicles.

The trend of "increasingly larger batteries in plug-in hybrid and extended-range vehicles" is very obvious. The newly released IM LS6 in August, with the extended-range 2.0 technology, has a battery capacity of over 60 kWh and a pure electric range of over 450 kilometers; the Leapmotor D19 released in October has a battery capacity of over 80 kWh and a pure electric range of 500 kilometers.

Therefore, at the front end of the industrial chain, the lithium battery industry is still expanding production. According to GGII data, from January to August, there were 183 new signed and started capacity expansion projects in China's lithium battery industrial chain, with a planned total investment of about 400 billion yuan; among them, the number of capacity expansion projects for lithium batteries and solid-state batteries was 54 and 23 respectively.

There is no doubt that the new energy vehicle and battery industries will still move forward as a whole.

CATL and BYD lead the way. Who is competing with them for market share?

According to the ranking statistics of the installed capacity of power battery enterprises, whether it is the single - month data in October or the cumulative data from January to October, the rankings of the top ten (actually from the 1st to the 11th place) have been fixed.

Undoubtedly, CATL firmly holds the top position. In October, its installed capacity reached 36.14 GWh, with a market share of 43.00%; the cumulative installed capacity in the first 10 months reached 246.82 GWh, with a market share of 42.79%. Although many battery enterprises are competing with it for market share, its market share in October increased by 0.19 percentage points.

BYD Fudi is the runner - up, far ahead of the third - placed and subsequent enterprises. In October, its installed capacity was 17.89 GWh, with a market share of 21.29%; the cumulative installed capacity in the first 10 months was 129.10 GWh, with a market share of 22.38%. The situation where "the champion accounts for more than 40% and the runner - up accounts for more than 20%" is quite stable.

This also enables the two enterprises to hold the gold and silver medals in the global market.

According to the global installed capacity data of power batteries from January to September 2025 released by SNE Research, CATL's global market share is 36.6%, and BYD's is 17.9%, showing a situation of "two giants far ahead" compared with LGES's 9.8% in the third place.

However, this doesn't mean that other enterprises have no chance.

Measured by the market share of the installed capacity of power batteries from January to October, CALB and Gotion High - tech have increased their market shares to over 5%.

Enterprises such as GAC and XPeng have helped CALB increase its market share to 7.05%, with a total installed capacity of 40.65 GWh in the first 10 months. Gotion High - tech, which has formed an alliance with Volkswagen, has also exceeded a market share of 5.52%.

From the 5th to the 10th place, the rankings in October and the cumulative rankings in the first 10 months are, in order: EVE Energy, Sunwoda, SVOLT Energy Technology, Ruipu Lanjun, Zhengli New Energy, and Jiyao Tongxing.

Among the top 15 enterprises, many power battery enterprises are strongly bound to vehicle enterprises or are companies founded with the investment of vehicle enterprises. For example, Great Wall Motor - SVOLT Energy Technology, Geely Auto - Jiyao Tongxing, GAC Group - Yinpai/Juwan, etc.

Since the above - mentioned installed capacity of power batteries includes the share of commercial vehicles, if only the installed capacity share of passenger vehicle power batteries is counted, the market shares of CATL and BYD basically remain unchanged. The former is still around 42%, and the latter is around 22 - 24%.

In terms of the installed capacity of pure electric vehicles and plug - in hybrid vehicles, BYD actually has a higher market share in the pure electric vehicle power battery market, two percentage points higher than that in the plug - in hybrid market. This also shows that since this year, the sales of pure electric small cars in the Chinese auto market have increased rapidly, and BYD's vehicle sales structure has once again tilted towards pure electric vehicles.

Other countries are "led by China"

Regarding the development strategy of new energy vehicles, there is an opposing view that "overseas markets are setting traps for China, while they themselves focus on fuel - powered cars and don't want to cooperate with China in the field of electric vehicles".

However, the export situation of power batteries does not support this view.

According to statistical data, in October, the total export volume of power and other batteries in China was 28.2 GWh, a month - on - month increase of 5.5% and a year - on - year increase of 33.5%, accounting for 17.0% of the monthly sales volume. The export shares of power batteries and other batteries were 68.8% and 31.2% respectively. Compared with the previous month, the share of power batteries increased by 2.8 percentage points.

Actually, the export speed of batteries